Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps I) his Department and ii) HMRC is taking to implement the guidance set out by the Government Commercial Function in its paper entitled Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments, published in November 2017, in respect of (a) using market engagement, (b) setting up disaggregation work, (c) risk assessment, (d) developing a programme plan through the transition, (e) identifying the skills and capabilities that will be needed in the future and (f) any other work related to that guidance.

HM Treasury currently has no IT contracts that fall within the threshold(s) set out in the “Exiting Major IT Contracts: Guidance for Departments” paper.

HMRC has already implemented much of the guidance set out in the recent publication through the successful conclusion of the Columbus programme (which will reduce IT run costs by c£200m pa by 2020-21), which saw the disaggregation of legacy IT contracts by breaking them into a series of smaller, more flexible contracts with new and existing suppliers. HMRC has already started detailed work on the next phase which covers current IT contracts ending in June 2020.